Psychosocial Hazards Focus: High Workload

When we talk to organisations and ask them what risks they suspect might be present in their workplace, what do you think tops their list? Yes, that's right. High workload.

Recognising the prevalence and impact of high workload on employees' mental health and wellbeing, we held a professional development webinar to address this pressing issue.

In this comprehensive session we explored the underlying causes of high workload perception, as well as effective strategies for managing and mitigating the risks associated with it.

Understanding High Workload – Why is it relevant?

The consequences of an excessive workload are far-reaching, affecting both physical health and mental wellbeing. Research highlights the alarming health risks associated with long working hours.

Working 55+ hours per week is associated with an estimated 35% higher risk of a stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, compared with working 35-40 hours a week.

_{Source: Pega, F., et all. (2021). Global, regional, and national burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke attributable to exposure to long working hours for 194 countries, 2000–2016: A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury. Environment International, 154, 106595.}

Working 55+ hours per week makes you 416% more likely to develop burnout.

_{Source: Prof Jarrod Haar. AUT. https://www.aut.ac.nz/news/stories/flames-in-the-nz-workforce}

High workload - definition

High workload refers to scenarios in which the volume of work tasks and responsibilities surpasses what can feasibly be handled within a specific timeframe or role. This condition often leads to stress and can impact both productivity and well-being.

Scenario Analysis

Eric has been working for organisation Y for 6 months. During this time, he consistently felt his workload was so high he couldn’t complete it during regular work hours, so he frequently works late. He noticed his colleagues and manager do the same. In fact, it seems to be a given that working overtime without compensation is the norm. Everyone is very committed to their work and they seem to take their ‘busyness” as a badge of honour. Eric is finding that this is affecting his personal life so he decides to do his best to work faster. He finds however that even though he focuses and works fast, the system he uses is very slow and clunky. Learning to use it was difficult given that the training material didn’t quite address the problems he was encountering and his colleagues had not always been helpful either because they were too busy or they didn’t know how to help. Eric also finds it frustrating that he needs information from different teams to complete his work and that this information is saved on different drives. He is also not sure who to contact in different teams to ask for support and he often gets abrasive answers from members of one team in particular. He finds himself wasting a lot of time trying to retrieve the information he needs without asking them for help.

Reflection questions for you:

What are the red flags in this scenario?
What psychosocial hazards are at play? What is underpinning the perception of high workload
What would you do if you were Eric’s manager?
What would you do if you were Eric?
What can be done right now to intervene and support Eric?
What preventative steps could have been taken and at what point?

How to identify high workload

Use this checklist to identify if high workload might be impacting your people:

Is there an unspoken acceptance of high workload as ‘normal’ and ‘required’ in your organization?
Are your systems creating stress for your employees?
Are your processes unclear/too complex?
Is cross-team collaboration ineffective?
Are there a lot of disrespectful behaviours tolerated in your organization?
Is there an implicit expectation to be ‘always on’, even when on leave?
Is workforce planning ineffective/absent in your organisation?
Do you have staff shortages?
Are you experiencing rapid growth?
Do your people have to process a lot of information and make a lot of decisions?

Most common factors contributing to perception of high workload from our audits

Ineffective work systems
Unclear processes
Lack of role clarity
Role conflict
Incivility
Ineffective communication (‘always on’ culture)
Ineffective workforce planning
Staff shortages
Rapid growth
High cognitive load

Strategic Approaches to Managing High Workload

Creating a healthier workplace requires a comprehensive strategy that includes:

Leadership Commitment: Leaders, especially executive leaders, play a pivotal role in addressing psychosocial hazards. Their commitment to understanding and acting on these issues is crucial for meaningful change. Without commitment from executive management to address psychosocial risk, the chances of success of any intervention are slim.
Identifying Underlying Causes: A thorough analysis to uncover the root causes of high workload enables targeted interventions. This type of analysis is in fact crucial for all risk factors and it is often achieved through a combination of quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
Training and Education: Equipping managers with the knowledge to recognize and mitigate psychosocial hazards, alongside training staff on psychosocial risk, their responsibilities and reporting procedures, is essential. Your line managers in particular play an important role in the identification, reporting and controlling of hazards. Their actions are likely to be scrutinised during regulator investigations.
Targeted Interventions: Solutions should focus on identifying psychosocial risk accurately and implementing effective controls. Often times organisations do not deploy an effective approach to psychosocial risk identification. They use surveys that do not have a sophisticated enough data analysis algorithm to account for the complexity of psychosocial hazards and how they interact with one another.

Organisation Profile

Approx 350 employees
Wellbeing strategy sitting with HR
Health and safety team separate goals
Male-dominated industry

Business Problem

Staff complaints about high workload
High staff turnover in certain teams
Anecdotal signs of burnout in staff
Organisational history of siloes
Poor cross-team collaboration affecting service delivery
Lack of data regarding psychosocial hazards or burnout rates

HBW Psychosocial Hazards Audit results: Data Revealed:

Underlying causes of high workload perception were:
- High cognitive load and poor work systems
- Lack of role and process clarity
- High prevalence of incivility
- Staff shortage in certain teams
35% of staff was at severe or very severe risk of burnout

Highlights of solutions implemented:

Working group HR, WHS, Inclusion and Diversity
Re-drafting Wellbeing Strategy to align with Health and Safety Strategy
Targeted interventions to clarify roles and processes
Working group to update IT systems used
HBW intervention on Civility, Respect and Collaboration

Results:

12-month follow up audit revealed:

18% reduction in severe and very severe burnout risk scores
15% reduction in severe job demands scores (workload perception)
20% improvement in job resources categories such as support from supervisor, support from colleagues and role clarity
Qualitative data – positive appraisal

Embracing the Challenge

Addressing high workload is not just about hiring more people. It's about creating an environment where employees can thrive without being overwhelmed. By focusing on the root causes and implementing strategic interventions, we can make significant strides toward a healthier workplace.

Message from Georgi

If you would like to explore opportunities to work together, book a 15-min chat below.

Some of the topics we can talk about include:

Psychosocial hazards Audit for your organisation
The Manager’s Toolkit: psychosocial risk management
Psychological Health and Safety for Staff
A sustainable wellbeing strategy for your organisation
Wellbeing Training for your organisation

About Dr. Georgi Toma

Georgi is an expert in stress, burnout and workplace mental health.

She is the founder of Heart & Brain Works. She also conducts research at the University of Auckland.

She is the creator of the Wellbeing Protocol, the only scientifically validated training to reduce burnout and improve mental wellbeing at work, in NZ and AU.

Research evidence shows the Wellbeing Protocol helps employees:

reduce stress by up to 58%
reduce burnout by up to 60%
improve metal wellbeing by up to 103%.